Over 3 years, 3 Education Ministers have given 3 different takes on a university’s legal duty of care to students. How do Robert Halfon, Janet Daby, and Josh MacAlister’s statements fit together—and where does DfE's account become confused?

It requires responsibility for delivery, monitoring progress, measuring outcomes and accountability when change does not happen. So the real question is not why a stakeholder forum had no budget. It is why something intended to implement “real change” was not constituted as a more substantive body.

A stakeholder forum brings people together to discuss, exchange views, coordinate and make recommendations. And that looks remarkably like what we have seen: meetings, guidance, recommendations and encouragement of Charter sign-ups. But implementation requires more than conversation.

For years this has publicly been an “Implementation Taskforce”, intended to deliver “real change”. DfE now tells us it operates as a “stakeholder forum”. That is rather different from what was promised.

I think you’re right. We’ve all focused on the eye-catching finding that there was no dedicated budget. But perhaps the real news was hiding in plain sight.

But where is the implementation, monitoring and evidence of success? Is this simply a case of getting what you pay for?

What followed from the creation of an Implementation Taskforce was largely meetings, guidance, recommendations and, of course, encouragement of Charter sign-ups.

The lack of any dedicated budget raises a different question: how seriously was this taskforce equipped to deliver the “real change” the Government promised?

That’s rather the point. This wasn’t just any stakeholder group. It was announced as part of the Government’s alternative to legislation, after bereaved families had campaigned for a statutory duty of care. If it had no budget, what exactly were families being offered?

Over 3 years, 3 Education Ministers have given 3 different takes on a university’s legal duty of care to students. How do Robert Halfon, Janet Daby, and Josh MacAlister’s statements fit together—and where does DfE's account become confused?